12 ways to protect your sofa from pets

Pets, pets, pets… We love them and they love us. But why don’t they love our sofas?

Well, I’m sure they love couches. Just not in the same way that we do since they like to bite or scratch the most important piece of our living room furniture.

To make life simpler, we have decided to share with you 12 ways to protect your sofa from pets. Hopefully these tips and ideas would be easy to apply with immediate results.

Ready to have an incredible sofa, even with pets in your home?

1. Have pet toys next to your sofa

This is probably the most common idea to prevent your dog from biting your sofa legs or your cat from scratching your sofa. Toys such as a chew toy or scratching post help pets to relax and play with them instead of your couch.

There are many types and designs, and it’s important to find the perfect one for your pet. Before purchasing anything, we recommend you to analyse your pet to identify if it loves to bite or scratch. Then you’ll be able to buy a pet toy accordingly.

Or, you can choose to make your own DIY scratching post.

2. Keep your pet’s nails trimmed

Another easy way to protect your sofa is just keeping the claws of your pets short and polished. This easy tip is also great for your pet’s health. Nails that are too long can chip and break, creating painful situations for your cat or dog.

They can also make standing and moving painful or awkward for your pet and in extreme situations, the nails can continue to grow until they curl around and become embedded in the paws of your pet’s feet. Just a few more reasons to keep your pet nails trimmed!

There’s also a very interesting product to avoid pets from scratching your sofa. It’s called Soft Paws and they’re tiny rubber nail caps that go on your cat’s claws with a sticky nail-polish-like glue.

These Soft Paws caps are small enough to allow your pet nails to retract normally, so they don’t feel any pain or discomfort. They also fall off naturally and you just need to reattach them as you go.

3. Buy a good and comfy pet bed or a pet couch cover

A great way to keep your pet from damaging the sofa is buying them a pet sofa or pet bed and teaching them to use it instead of the couch. Pet beds are also a great way to control fur dispersal, because it’ll be mainly all in the same place.

If your pets don’t like the bed you bought, you can try a pet couch cover that’s widely available online. Your pet will be able to use your sofa, without leaving hair or dirt on it.

4. Close the door of your living room

At Comfort Works we are huge pet lovers, and we love to have our pets playing and walking all around our homes in a free way. But if you aren’t at home and you can’t control what your pets are doing, it’s important to protect the rooms where your pets can destroy furniture.

For example, just by closing the door of your living room you’ll prevent your pets from damaging your sofa. The alternative is to keep them in a room of their own if space allows it.

If your pets love to scratch a door when it’s closed, you can also buy a door scratch protector. They are available at Amazon, Target, Walmart and many local shops.

5. Install a pet door in your home so pets can play outside

Many times pets just need a little bit of outdoor time to play, bite things and do all kinds of stuff that animals have to do. Installing a little pet entrance to your garden is a great way to ensure your pet will be entertained when you aren’t at home.

6. Give your pet plenty of exercise

Take your pet for a walk, play with it, take it to the park… These activities, in addition to improving the physical shape of your pet, will help when they get home to be more relaxed and calm.

Essentially these pets need stimuli and if they’re cooped up all day at home they’ll need something to take it out on – that’s right, your furniture becomes a victim.

If you don’t have enough time to do it during the day, you can always hire a dog walker or take your pet to an animal daycare centre where professionals can play with them and keep them entertained.

7. Brush your pet’s hair regularly

We know how exhausting it can be to have pet hair all around the house. Just brushing your pet’s hair regularly you’ll prevent this issue and you’ll keep your pet clean and healthy.

In extreme cases, you can also buy vacuum cleaners that are the best for removing pets’ hair. There are many of them in the market, for different budgets and situations. We recommend a bagged vacuum to avoid pet hair to go flying every time you empty the vacuum cleaner. Of course, not every pet likes this.

8. Spray your furniture with citrus-scented air freshener

I love this tip because it’s so easy and cost effective! Not only do you keep your sofa smelling good and fresh but pets normally don’t like citrus scents.

As such they’ll need to look for other places to lounge on, allowing you to isolate spaces for better fur control.

9. Pet gate

You could also keep your pets confined in a smaller space when you’re not at home with the help of pet gates. They’re readily available on many online shopping sites, so you can get them and build them in a shape you like or according to the boundaries you’d like to set around your house.

10. Double-sided tapes

This is probably not the most aesthetic solution but it works really well. You just need to spread double-sided tape on places of your couch where your pets love to scratch, like the sofa legs, the armrest, etc.

The sticky feeling of the double-sided tape will keep your pet away from the sofa. When buying the double-sided tape, remember to choose one which doesn’t leave a sticky residue on your furniture.

11. Aluminium foil

Try this trick: Place some aluminium foil on the sofa. A lot of pets are known to be afraid of loud noises. When they jump on the sofa, the noise made by the aluminium foil will make them run! While this doesn’t work on all pets, it’s been known as a good trick to use by many pet owners.

One thing to be cautious is that this may not be a good method if your pet has past traumas or other fears. 

 

12. Pet-proof sofa covers

If all else fails, a pet-proof slipcover is the best way to protect your sofa from pets. At Comfort Works we have more than 70 types of fabrics to make our handmade slipcovers with. One of them is even designed specifically for pets: Clawproof Velvet sofa covers.

The material used is a soft velvet that is tightly woven so that claws and teeth are unable to pierce through – which makes them the perfect protection against rowdy cats and dogs.

They are also available in a wide variety of covers and are tailor-fit to your sofa to keep it stylish. We recommend getting one that matches the colour of your pet’s fur. This way the fur won’t be so visible on your sofa, though the slipcovers can be machine-washed for periodic easy cleaning as well.

If the look is not for you, some of our customers have shared that our leather slipcovers are also a great choice for pets as they are easy to clean with a damp cloth. It doesn’t attract hair like fabrics and is more odour-resistant than other materials.

Cats in general are also less likely to scratch leather, as there are little to no gaps for their claws to go through,  but accidents do happen so it’s always recommended to trim their nails anyway.  Prevention is always better than cure!

The best way to test is by ordering some fabric samples and checking them in person. And don’t forget to rub them on your pets! You can order some of our fabric swatches here.

Try our samples

Hope these ideas will help you to protect your sofa! If you have more tips or advice for homes with pets, don’t hesitate to leave us a comment below. We always read them 🙂

If you are interested in learning more about our pet-proof sofa covers, visit us at our online store. You can also connect with us via Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.

Have a nice day!